Assizes of Jerusalem, French Assises De Jérusalem, a law code based on a series of customs and practices that developed in the Latin crusader kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. It stands as one of the most complete monuments of feudal law.

Godfrey of Bouillon, statue in Innsbruck, Austria.

Dralon

The basis for the assizes was laid by Godfrey of Bouillon (d. 1100), first ruler of the kingdom. He asked his leading men to query crusaders regarding customs and practices prevalent in the West. The customs that were adopted were primarily French and were intended to govern and guard a population surrounded by enemies and dependent upon military service to maintain itself. Deposited in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the code was referred to as Lettres du Sepulchre (“Letters of the Sepulchre”).

The assizes provided for such things as the king’s officers, administration of justice, collection of taxes, granting of fiefs, provisions for military service, and regulation of trade. The original Lettres du Sepulchre perished at the capture of Jerusalem in 1187, but another compilation was made in the 13th century by a group of lawyers in the kingdom of Cyprus, where remnants of Frankish society in the Latin East settled after the Muslim reconquest of the Holy Land. Though the assizes were revised over the subsequent 300 years, they still elucidate the nature of the feudal state in the European Middle Ages.

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c. 1060 July 18, 1100 kingdom of Jerusalem [now Jerusalem, Israel] duke of Lower Lorraine (as Godfrey IV; 1089–1100) and a leader of the First Crusade, who became the first Latin ruler in Palestine after the capture of Jerusalem from the Muslims in July 1099.

in Crusades

The greatest cultural achievement of the Second Kingdom was the collection of legal treatises, the Assizes of Jerusalem. The sections that were compiled in the middle years of the century and, therefore, in the atmosphere of the wars against the agents of Frederick II constitute a veritable charter of baronial rights. In fact, two of the authors were members of the Ibelin family, and a third,...

...because its history figures more prominently in both Arab and Christian chronicles but especially because its documents were better preserved. In the 13th century the famous legal compilation the Assises de Jérusalem (Assizes of Jerusalem) was prepared in the kingdom. Though this collection reflects a later situation, certain sections and many individual enactments can be traced back...